Have you ever heard of e-books or e-readers? Most people have. People who have been newly introduced to them may be surprised to know that e-books and e-readers are not new. In 1971, Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, invented e-books. E-readers were first introduced in 1998 with the making of the Rocket E-book and the Softbook.
You might be wondering why most people didn’t hear of them until recently; this is because early e-readers were introduced to digital aliens, a term used to describe people who were introduced to technology at an older age. These digital aliens preferred to stick to the physical books that they were used to. E-readers seemed like an impractical buy just as robots seem impractical buy for us. But when the Amazon Kindle was introduced in 2007, it was introduced to digital natives and digital aliens more attuned and open to technology and our world which is more digital than the world 12 years ago. The e-reader that seemed unnecessary in the 1990s is more practical now.
Many people have discovered the practicality and convenience of e-books and e-readers. On July 19, 2010, Amazon announced that during the previous three months, Kindle e-book sales were higher than the sales of hardcover books. Amazon said that during the three months they sold 143 Kindle e-books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcover books that aren’t in Kindle book format (“Kindle”). This is important because this is the first time e-books have sold more than any kind of printed book, and soon it will out sell paper backs. In addition, an article in the International Business Times entitled “E-Readers at a Glance” by Gabriel Perna reports that although Amazon does not report exact figures on the Kindle, analysts estimate about 3.5 to 4 million devices have been sold. These are just statistics for the Kindle, so if we put into consideration all the Nooks and Sony e-Readers sold, not to mention all the other e-readers that are not as popular, but still part of the market, the number of e-readers sold in the past couple years becomes mind blowing. Plus, the sales of e-readers are predicted to rise incredibly. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) surveyed 12,717 web users from 14 different countries for two days. They reported on March of 2009 that 28% of all respondents and 51% of the people that said they were familiar with e-readers and tablets said they planned to buy an e-reader or tablet within the next year. Those percentages jumped to 49% and 73%, when they were asked if they'd buy a device within three years (Buledosh, “Surge in E-readers, tablets predicted within three years”). Now, we have to consider the fact that e-books are more widespread than e-readers since people don’t have to own an e-reader to read e-books. They can still read them on other devices such as iPhones, PCs, and Macs, just to mention a few, so the popularity of e-books rising at an even greater rate than that of e-readers.
Although the e-books and e-readers are becoming immensely popular and a large amount of
people like them, there are people who are still skeptical of them. Some of them love physical books and don’t like the thought of reading on a device. An associate director for the Center for the Humanities at Washington University, Jian Leng, wrote “The future of ink on paper: try this on a kindle” in the St. Louis Journalism Review. In this article, he expresses his love for physical books by saying, “… the physicality of a book is a much more beautiful information-storage device than an electronic machine, and provides a dimension of pleasure unequalled by the digital alternative.” This is not the only reason for skepticism; other reasons are: people are worried e-readers have a planned obsolescence, or in other words, the e-readers in the market now are planned to be unusable in the near future and whether e-readers can support all different e-book formats. Some people may even consider e-readers as unnecessary and a waste of money when people can just go to a library to get a book. Although these concerns are reasonable, they are flawed.
Like Leng, I am a huge fan of books. I love to read. One would think that as a lover of books, I would have been thrilled to learn of e-readers but I was apprehensive about it. I thought the whole experience of reading is more pleasurable with an actual book. I felt like the texture and weight of a book, turning the pages, and the smell of books was all part of the experience. Thinking about holding a cold, hard device instead of a book just seemed wrong to me. Although I was doubtful when it came to reading e-books instead of printed ones, I was curious of the new technology of e-readers. With this curiosity, I bought Barnes and Noble’s e-reader, the Nook. The e-reader was even more convenient than reading printed books. The device was not as different from a book as I predicted. Not only did the e-reader come with features such as storing thousands of books, changing the font, and looking up words quickly in the dictionary, but the reading experience was just as wonderful. I found that I didn’t miss the page turning, the smell, or any of the physical parts of reading. The main reason of why reading is so pleasurable and wonderful not because of the physical things, but the content of the book. Snuggling up with a good book on my Nook is just as comfortable as snuggling with a printed book. Buying the Nook made me realize that I would not mind if all printed books were replaced by e-readers and e-books.
My concern for the reading experience on my nook was a misconception and another misconception about e-readers is that they only allow someone to read books bought with the company of the e-reader. It is true that there are several different formats for e-books, but devices can support most of them. I would say all, but companies want to have some profit, so companies have their own format. E-books from Amazon cannot be read on a Nook, and vice versa, but if someone bought e-books from different sites before buying their nook, and the formats are EPUB, PDB, or PDF, they can just download the saved books from their computer onto the device. The only inconvenience that comes with buying e-books from other sites is the fact that the book is not delivered to your device in seconds.
Speaking of e-book formats, since they are set, e-readers introduced now will not become obsolete in the near future. We can see how the mp3 player or computer has evolved in time to prove this. Using an mp3 player from 10 years ago is not a big deal. They use the same mp3 file format to listen to music like the latest mp3 players in the market. Also, computers from the 1990s can be used today. People don’t use them because they want the new features and styles. Just as one can use an mp3 player from 10 years ago or use a computer from 20 years ago, we will be able to use devices many years from now. The only thing that would tempt anyone to get a new e-reader would be all the features that will come with advances in e-reader technology.
Now you might be thinking, “I get why people shouldn’t be worried about e-readers once they buy them, but why can’t people just go to the library? Why buy books when the American public library system is so great?” Going to a fantastic library may not be hard for those living in or near the city, but for all those in our huge country who don’t have access to a good library, e-readers can be a major help. Let’s say my research paper is due in a week. I would go to my library to look for a book, only to find out that they don’t have it. The librarians would help me and search to see if any libraries in their system have it but I would find that they don’t. If I am very intent on finding this book, I would go to a town bigger than mine, which would be an hour drive. I would drive an hour and search for the book to find that their system doesn’t have it too but I could have saved all that time if I looked to see if this book is in e-book format and downloaded it from the comfort of my home. Some may argue that there aren’t that many e-books out there and it wouldn’t be unlikely for me to find that there isn’t whatever I was looking for in e-book form. I would say, think again. Project Gutenberg, started with the invention of e-books and has a total of 33,000 public domain books, or books out of copy write date, available to the public. Along with all the books in the library of over a million e-books with Barnes and Noble, I’d say I have a good chance.
So is the e-reader an impractical device? I say, no. E-readers are just at the beginning of their existence in our technological lives. E-readers are not just a passing fad. As e-books become an even more popular and our world becomes increasingly digitalized, e-readers or devices that can read e-books will rise in popularity as well. E-readers will not become obsolete or have a planned obsolescence but will last for a long time. The accessibility of e-books will become greater as time goes on and the practicality of e-readers will follow suit. As practicality gets higher, everyone will own or have easy access to them, just as almost everyone in the world owns or has access to computers and e-readers will become a part of our technological lives. I believe it will change our lives.
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